Mixing Instructions: Pour the rum in an old-fashioned glass with a couple cubes of ice, float the pineapple juice on top.

Notes: To understand this album one must begin with Chris McCandless, the conflicted young adventurer who was the subject of Jon Krakauer’s 1996 non-fiction book Into the Wildand the 2007 movie adaptation of the same name.

"In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new identity for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter." - Into the Wild (book cover)

Eddie Vedder took what was already a poetic story and quietly and respectfully enhanced it in a way that only he could do, with 11 songs of deep personal and societal examination, angst, fury and ultimately hope. Make yourself a drink and listen with a good friend.